The present invention relates to a device for producing cigarettes in the tobacco processing industry and a method therefore.
US 2005/0172977 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses the production of tobacco products with a paper that has relatively low ignition properties. In technical language, such papers are designated as “low ignition propensity (LIP)” papers.
LIP paper is characterized in that the paper strips responsible for the LIP effect have a coating that confers the low ignition properties to the paper. These strips, as is known from WO 2009/157720 A2, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, for example, have a width of 5 mm and completely surround the cigarette. For producing such tobacco products, the initially named application US 2005/0172977 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, describes that the LIP paper is unrolled from a roll and fed to a tobacco processing unit of the cigarette machine. In order to be able to conduct the feeding speed and the speed during cutting the processed endless tobacco rods into individual cigarettes corresponding to the LIP strips, the LIP paper has synchronization marks. An optically based marking sensor identifies the synchronization marks on the fed paper, and generates corresponding synchronization signals that control the speed of the subsequent processing steps so that the LIP strips of paper are in the desired position on the cigarette. Further, it is known from US 2005/0172977, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, to use LIP strips themselves as synchronization marks, and to detect these optically in order to generate synchronization signals for producing the cigarette strips. A disadvantage of optically identifying the LIP strips is that they can form a weak contrast and therefore cannot be optically identified with sufficient reliability.
From US 2009/0301506 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a method is known for producing a LIP cigarette paper. The LIP strips are applied as a coating to the cigarette paper.
From WO 2009/027831 A2, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a cigarette paper is known that has a wave-like circumferential LIP band. Different shapes are proposed for the wave pattern.
From US 2009/0025742 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a LIP cigarette paper is known in which the LIP coating consists of a sodium alginate that is applied as an aqueous solution.
From WO 2008/146170 A2, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, LIP strips for cigarette papers are known that have a wave-like shape.
From EP 1 449 447 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a cigarette is known which has a greater tobacco density in a central core region than in the jacket region surrounding the core region.
From WO 02/43513 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a cigarette with LIP properties is known in which the glow of the cigarette is reduced in its diameter by cellulose additive so that the cigarette is self-extinguishing.
From U.S. Pat. No. 6,645,605 B2, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a material for a cigarette with LIP properties is known in which a coating is applied on the cigarette paper by a thermoplastic polymer.
From EP 2 177 118 A1, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein by reference, a method for processing a LIP strip is known in which the material of the LIP strip is abraded in a positionally accurate manner for improving the adhesion properties.